Rann has been a long-standing dream project of Ram Gopal Varma. He has been itching to make a movie that attempts to unmask the truths & facts that go behind the capturing, creating, packaging and presenting of what we commonly know as News. Having just seen the movie, I’m slightly disappointed in RGV, for Rann showcases what effectively is a mere drop in the ocean, it exposes but a single shameful escapade, a sinister plot that has a greater significance in the balance shift but a triviality nevertheless!
Whether Ramu has in mind a sequel (or two) I’m not sure but this one is just an episode. He might have as well said “Stay tuned…we’ll be back” at the end of it all!
Vijay Dinanth Chauhan…er…beg your pardon, Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan) is the face of India 24×7 News Channel and the most trusted media journalist out there. But popularity and trust doesn’t beget the TRP’s and the channel is losing out on this front to newer, more effervescent and more ‘masaledaar’ channels – of which Amrish Kakkar’s (Mohnish Bahl) Headlines24 is topmost. Jay Malik (Sudeep), VHM’s son and the channel’s CEO wants money & success and when new shows’ plots and titles are blatantly leaked off to rival channels, he’s at his wit’s end. The situation is ably taken advantage of by industrialist Naveen Shankalya (Rajat Kapoor) and opposition leader Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal).
Thus begins a deadly and sinister game of comeuppance, within which Vijay becomes the cat’s paw and aspiring journalist Purab Shastri (Riteish Deshmukh), the unwilling spectator. To paraphrase one of the movie’s dialog: “In the quest for power, the media is bought out by the industrialists and politicians and the news is not told, but made” Continue reading
